Bob Barret was a 74-year-old man at the time of interview, which took place in the Dilworth neighborhood of Charlotte, North Carolina. He was born in Dyersburg, Tennessee in 1940. He was educated at Rhodes College, Vanderbilt University, UNC Charlotte, and Georgia State University. Dr. Barret was employed in several professions; as a high school teacher and administrator at Charlotte Country Day School and at the Lovett School in Atlanta, Georgia, as a professor of counseling at UNC Charlotte, as a staff psychologist at the Behavioural Medicine Unit of the University of California San Francisco Medical School, and as a counseling psychologist in private practice in Charlotte.
In this third of three interviews, Dr. Robert L. Barret, professor emeritus in counseling at UNC Charlotte, practicing psychotherapist, and LGBTQ activist, discusses at length the reactions and ramifications of coming out to his family as a gay man during the mid-1980s. Dr. Barret recalls his strained relationship with his wife, Diane, and their decision to separate. He also discusses his post-coming out relationships with his three daughters: Laura, Amanda, and Ashley. Dr. Barret's oldest daughter, Ashley, came out as a lesbian. Amanda and Laura entered hetero-marriages and adopted Christian lifestyles that Dr. Barret explains were often at odds with his own lifestyle.
